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[On the validity of the axis "Structure" of operationalized psychodynamic diagnostics]
Carsten Spitzer1, Felicitas Michels-Lucht, Ute Siebel
1Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität im Klinikum Stralsund, Rostocker Chaussee 70, D-18437 Stralsund, Germany. spitzer@mail.uni-greifswald.de
Objectives:
As part of the concurrent validity, we aimed to empirically study the association between the axis IV (structure) of the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostics (OPD) and corresponding constructs, which were assessed byself-report measures.
Methods:
The structural level of 132 psychiatric inpatients was related to the findings of the Borderline-Personality-Inventary (BPI) and the Toronto-Alexithymia-Scale (TAS-20).
Results:
Analyses of variances indicated that patients with a good structural level scored lower on the BPI and its subscales than those with a low level. However, posthoc comparisons revealed that significant differences were only found between the good and the moderate or the low level respectively. There was no association between the structure and alexithymia.
Conclusions:
Despite some methodological limitations our findings point at a satisfactory validity of the axis "structure" of the OPD. However, its limited ability to discriminate between patients with a moderate and a low level of structural integration needs further attention.